螺旋星系M74：更清晰的影像

2022年7月22日

Spiral Galaxy M74: A Sharper View
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Processing Copyright: Robert Eder

Explanation: Beautiful spiral galaxy Messier 74 (also known as NGC 628) lies some 32 million light-years away toward the constellation Pisces. An island universe of about 100 billion stars with two prominent spiral arms, M74 has long been admired by astronomers as a perfect example of a grand-design spiral galaxy. M74’s central region is brought into a stunning, sharp focus in this recently processed image using publicly available data from the James Webb Space Telescope. The colorized combination of image data sets is from two of Webb’s instruments NIRcam and MIRI, operating at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths. It reveals cooler stars and dusty structures in the grand-design spiral galaxy only hinted at in previous space-based views.

Tomorrow’s picture: light-weekend

螺旋星系M74：更清晰的影像
影像提供: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; 影像处理与版权: Robert Eder

说明: 美丽的螺旋星系M74（也称为NGC628），位于双鱼座方向约3千2百万光年远之处。拥有两道鲜明螺旋臂的M74，是一个大约由1000亿颗恒星所组成的宇宙岛，长久以来一直被天文学家推崇为宏伟螺旋星系的完美范例。在这张处理自韦伯太空望远镜公开数据的影像里，M74的中心区成为令人惊叹无比清晰的注目焦点。这幅人为上色的影像，整合自韦伯的近红外（NIRcam）及中红外相机（MIRI）所取得的影像数据。影像呈现此宏伟螺旋星系里，较冷的恒星及尘埃的结构，而这些结构在先前的太空影像仅隐约可见。

明日的图片: light-weekend